1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanner or an image scanning device such as a multi-function product (MFP) having a scan function. More particularly, the present invention relates to a network scanning method, which allows an image scanning device to transmit scan data to a server selected by a user, and an image scanning device using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multi-function product (MFP) having a scan function reads document data from a page of a document to be scanned, and prints or transmits the read document data to an external device using a communication device such as a modem. A network scan function comprises sharing a scanner or an MFP having a scan function with a plurality of users and transmitting scan data generated by scanning a document using the scanner to a server selected by a user.
Conventional operation of a network scanning system including servers and a scanner will now be described. A user selects a server to transmit scan data to and provides server authentication information, that is, an identification (ID) and password, and a scan option. The scanner generates scan data by scanning a document according to the input scan option and transmits the generated scan data to the selected server.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a conventional network scanning method in which an image scanning device having a network scanning function, such as a scanner or an MFP, generates scan data and transmits the generated scan data to a server. Referring to FIG. 1, the image scanning device begins to scan a document desired by a user in operation 100 and determines whether an error exists in a connection to a server, step 110. If the connection between the image scanning device and the server is normal, the image scanning device transmits scan data to the server in step 120. If the connection between the image scanning device and the server is abnormal, the image scanning device stops scanning and terminates the network scanning operation requested by the user in step 130.
When a network scanning function is performed using the conventional network scanning method described above, if a connection error exists between an image scanning device and a server, a user must wait until the connection error is fixed. Even after the connection error is fixed, the user must perform a user authentication process, a server selection process, and a scan option setting process, for a subsequent network scanning operation. In particular, when the quantity of documents to be scanned is large, the user may have to wait for the image scanning device for a very long scan time because of the possibility of scanning operations being interrupted due to connection errors.